The topography of extracellular microenvironment can influence cellular responses from attachment and migration to differentiation and production of new tissue. Cells in their natural environment interact with extracellular matrix that contains structures in the nanometer scale. Likewise, cells cultured on surfaces with nanotopography show alteration in their biological properties with respect to attachment, motility and proliferation and the like.
In particular, endocytocytic properties of cells are also modulated in response to the topography of the extracellular environment. Recent studies have highlighted the influence of cell-topography interactions on the modulation of cellular processes, including protein expression and cytoskeletal behaviors implicated in endocytosis. Endocytosis plays a key role in intracellular molecular, drug and gene (or nucleic acid) delivery. However, topographical control of cell transfectability remains largely unexplored.
Delivery of molecules, drugs and genes to a cell can be classified into viral and non-viral vector delivery. Viral delivery provides good transfection efficiency. However, the risk of potential adverse immunological responses has hindered its development in clinical settings.
Non-viral delivery has been shown to be safe as it avoids the complication of using viral components. However, very low transfection efficiency and non-specific delivery have limited the practical application of non-viral delivery methods.
There is therefore a need to provide an improved delivery technique that overcomes the disadvantages mentioned above to enhance intracellular delivery of molecules, drugs and nucleic acids.